of ordaining Elders and other matters relating to the better regulation of Church affairs And he was not chosen to this Office by the people but appointed unto it by St Paul and when he had thus received this Authority from him we cannot think that he was to depend upon the People in the exercise of it For he alone is commissioned to ordain Elders without any mention of the suffrages of the multitude And there cannot be the least shadow of a conjecture framed to the contrary from the nice consideration of the word For that which is here translated Ordain is not the same with that which is used in the other place for it signifies plainly to constitute place or set up without any intimation of lifting up of hands or any way of popular Election whatsoever So that we have neither precept not Example in the Scripture for the Peoples right to the choice of their Pastors But if it should be still urged against us that the Church of England is to be condemned for want of such a free choice as may be always pretended but I believe will never be proved necessary then to this we do reply that this freedom of choice is in some sort retained in our Church for all the Ministers in it are appointed according to the known Laws of this Land and to these every one of us by our representatives have at least virtually given our consent and a virtual consent in this case is allowed to be sufficient by some of the ablest Patrons of the People's right of Election SECT VI. But it is objected farther that the want of Discipline in our parochial Churches is a very great and unsufferable defect But there is no cause given for such an exception for every Minister has the approbation of those that are to be admitted and is impowered to reject scandalous offenders from the Holy Communion And these are certainly parts of Discipline which with the other acts of the Ministerial office shew that there is some order and Government in our parochial Assemblies If this should not be esteemed enough because in them we cannot inflict the highest kind of Ecclesiastical censures we do not conceive that there is any necessity that such a power should be granted unto them since it is abundantly supplyed by the Authority of the Diocesan which reaches every particular Church in the whole Jurisdiction And it would be as unreasonable to think that there is no Discipline in a Parish because there are some acts of it which cannot be there performed as it would be for the inhabitants of a village or hamlet to complain that they were under no Government because they had not the Power of life and death amongst themselves for the defects of the one are made up by the power of the Diocesan Church and those of the other by that of the Commonwealth whereof they are respective parts I do not find that our Saviour or his Apostles have made it necessary that all offences should be finally censured by the sole Power of that Congregation where they were committed This were to set up an uncontroulable Authority in every private Assembly and every twenty or thirty men or it may be fewer that should be pleased to enter into Covenant together and call themselves a Church as some contend they may would be ipso facto invested with a Power of determining all matters of Ecclesiastical cognizance without Appeal which is more than most Papists will allow to the Bishop of Rome What foundation there is for the erecting such a boundless power I cannot tell neither can I guess what good use is ever like to be made of it if it should be granted but this I know that the Church of England which is a society of Christians imbodied under certain Laws and Governours cannot be accused for want of Discipline if she does not permit the full exercise of it in our parochial Churches For in all Communities every member is influenced and directed by the good Constitution of the whole Body and what cannot be legally judged in a lower may be reserved for the decision of a superiour Court SECT VII But some are still dissatisfied with the Church of England because they imagine it is not a pure Church and if they have an opportunity of joining with another which they can suppose to be purer they think themselves obliged to do it For the resolution of this doubt these few things may be considered What it is that makes a pure Church Whether the Church of England be such a one Whether we are always bound to join with that Church which we conceive to be the most pure Now that Church questionless may be said to be pure whose doctrine is consonant to the word of God where the Sacraments are duly administred where all the fundamental Articles of our Faith are publickly imbraced where men are not required to profess or to do any thing that is contrary to the Rule of the Holy Gospel Such a Church cannot be denyed to be Pure For here is not the mixture of any unclean thing that can taint it with the least imaginable impurity or impress any blot or stain upon it Then that the Church of England is thus pure it will not be difficult to shew before any impartial Judge For what Doctrine does she teach that is not to be found in the Holy Scriptures What Sacrament does she deprive the people of either in the whole or in part What Article of our Belief is it that she rejects What is it that is repugnant to the Laws of Christ which she obliges us either to believe or practise Does she tell us that the Elements in the Holy Encharist are transubstantiated by a few Syllables pronounced by him that Officiates Does she teach us to adore Saints and Images and to pray for the Dead Does she cheat the people with forged Miracles and impose upon their credulity with foppish Legends Does she kindle an imaginary Purgatory fire in the other world that she may set up a thriving trade for Indulgences in this Can she be accused of these corruptions or a hundred more that might be named Is not her Doctrine confessed to be pure And is not her Discipline such at least as is not forbidden And if she be sound in both these I do not discern from what other fountains any Impurity can be derived upon Her And for what has been commonly excepted concerning the use of some external and Indifferent things she cannot possibly contract any thing of pollution from these for if they do not defile a man much less will they be able to corrupt a Church But though the Church of England should be proved and granted to be a pure Church yet we are still to inquire Whether if we can find some other which we esteem to be more pure we are not bound to join with that And to this it may be answered that when a Church is so
sar pure that it does not exact the belief or exercise of any thing that is unlawful it is certain that we may safely join with such a Church And if we were ever admitted members of it or if we should be bound by the Laws of the Land where we are subjects to communicate with it we must not separate from it upon any pretence of greater purity For where all things necessary to Salvation are taught and where nothing contrary to the word is injoyned that Church is full as pure as any other can be supposed to be For the Scriptures must be acknowledged to be the only rule of purity and then where there is nothing contrary unto them there is not any thing that ought to be accounted impure If we should forsake this and judge of these things by other measures we must leave them to be determined by every man's particular Fancy And then one would presently imagine this to be the purest Church and another that and as soon as any one began to have the least dislike of any thing in his own Church he would fall immediately to looking about for one that was purer and if he chanced to find such a one it might not be very long before he might be offended with that too and make inquiry after another and so this principle instead of bringing him into the purest Church might at length draw him from the Communion of all the Churches in the World There have been instances of this but if there were none it is very apparent whither this opinion may lead us and we should be very cautious how we entertain it since it tends manifestly to the dissolution of all Church Society and the endless rending and dividing of the Body of Christ And to avoid being guilty of this we must fix our selves upon some firm foundation which in this case can be no other than what has been already intimated that we esteem nothing impure but what God has declared to be so If any Church impose any thing upon us which is contrary to the word of God as that of Rome does we must not join with it but if a Church require nothing repugnant unto that as ours of England does not we ought not to separate from it though we should think that we had discovered another that was more pure For those that are not satisfied with that degree of Purity in a Church Constitution which is to be found in ours will scarce ever be contented with any If that be not pure enough for them where no unlawful thing is commanded I do not know where they will find one that is And if they should go on at such a rate they may Purisy a Church till they have Reformed it to nothing Like an unskilful Chymist that will rectifie and refine good Spirits so long till he have made them so very volatile and exalted them to that degree that they evaporate and vanish into air If we cannot tell where we may safely stop we may lose the very substance and being of a Church when we think we are only purging away the dregs But if it should still be insisted on that we ought to withdraw from the Communion of a less pure Church where a purer may be had then if there should be any Church that holds it unlawful to submit to Authority in matters indifferent we are obliged by this Rule to forsake it and come over to the Church of England because this Doctrine is a greater Impurity than any that can be justly charged upon Her SECT VIII Another exception that lyes against our present establishment is the admission of Lay-Chancellours and Officials to any Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical concerns This is a thing that has been often objected not only by those that dissent from our Church but by some that are otherwise no enemies unto it As far as I understand the Case I shall briefly lay down what I judge may be reasonably pleaded in excuse of this practice It ought therefore to be considered that as soon as soveraign Princes had imbraced the Christian Religion out of the great respect which they bore to Churchmen they bestowed upon them many priviledges and amongst the rest they were pleased to intrust them with a power of judging in divers matters which before did not properly belong to their cognizance In this Kingdom Matrimonial and Testamentary Causes especially have been always triable in the Spiritual Court And for the better dispatch of these affairs which by the favour of the Prince were committed unto them the Bishops were allowed to make choice of certain persons skilful in those Laws to be their assistants in their Judiciary proceedings and these were antiently called Ecclesiecdici and are thought to have been the same with our Chancellours Now these Chancellours whatever they act do all by vertue of an Authority delegated to them by the Bishop and they have not a power of doing any Act that is purely Spiritual for upon hearing of the Cause they only give their judgement when an offender ought to be censured according to Law but the sentence is always pronounced by an Ecclesiastical person So that I do not understand why it should be necessary to make so great an alteration in the frame of our antient Constitution as the removal of these would occasion since they cannot be looked upon as Invaders but friendly Assistants of the Spiritual Power That I may not mention what a prejudice it might be to the publick to give any discouragement to the excellent Profession of the Civil Law whereof there is such an absolute necessity in Maritime causes Treaties of commerce and other negotiations with foreign Princes SECT IX I come now to that which I think is the most popular and taking objection that is wont to be made against our Church and that is the permitting one person to injoy a plurality of Benefices It is a thing which many do esteem a very great abuse and that which ought not by any means to be indured And I confess I am not very forward to attempt the making any Apology for it I would not zealously defend a custome where the contrary practice seems to have in it so much Piety and self-denyal and care for the Souls of men But because I believe that it was not retained among us but upon some good and weighty considerations I shall briefly offer what I conceive may be said in defence of it which I shall do by removing the main objections that are ordinarily made against it It is argued therefore that for any man to have more Benefices than one is a thing unlawful in it self that it is a particular wrong to him that supplys the Cure and that there are other great inconveniences that do follow upon it The first of these is the principal objection and if there may be any reasonable answer made unto that there will be no great difficulty in the other two And I do not
Popish adversaries with great learning and answerable success Since the discovery of the late most horrid Plot no men have been more forward than they to declare their abhorrency of all the false Doctrines and practices of the Roman Synagogue and that generally throughout the Nation as if they had been animated as I believe they were by the same Spirit Insomuch that it was commonly confessed that there was no sort of men in the Kingdom that did exceed them for the worthy discharge of their Duty in that respect And are not these arguments enough to assure us of their sincerity And what should be the reason then that they should come to be suspected for favourers of Popery all of a suddain I must needs confess I am not able to imagine if it be not this that some are very angry with them because some of them taking notice how the clouds did seem to drive from several quarters have been a little afraid that those tempestuous winds that were like to shipwrack Church and State did not all blow from the same point of the Compass And some have been most highly provoked by this conjecture but I hope their impatience does not argue any thing of guilt However it be I am sure the Papists themselves do not take us for their friends any more than we do them for ours They have been perpetually bending the main of their force against the Church as it is now by Law established they have incouraged our Divisions and to this end have sent abroad their Emissaries in divers shapes to exercise their pretended Gifts in private and of this we have unquestionable evidence and examples So that if there be any Papists indeed in Masquerade we may easily know where to find them They have been very kind to Dissenters and pleaded very earnestly for their Liberty It is not many years ago since they used what Interest they had to procure them an Indulgence and hoped to bring their designs about in that popular way This has been proved of late by several Witnesses and confessed by themselves The Conformists were sensible of it at the first and have been sufficiently derided and censured for expressing their zeal against Popery upon that occasion After this our dissenting Brethren do best understand what incouragement they had to make their applications as some of them did to some of the principal men of the Romish faction It seems to have been either a confidence of some good will they bore to them or else a sense of the hatred they had for us I will not undertake to determine which of these it might be but one of them no doubt it was But it is very unjust that we should be thought to be Popishly affected whom they have indeavoured by all means possible to undermine when others that have been apparently befriended by them pass for good unsuspected Protestants Besides there is not any Principle entertained by the Church of England that has the least affinity with any Popish Doctrine But amongst those that have separated from us there have been some that have deny'd the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical affairs some that have thought it lawful to depose and murder Soveraign Princes some that have disavowed the ful ness and sufficiency of the Scriptures and conceived themselves to be guided by an infallible Spirit and if they could but learn the art of being handsomly perjured and take Oaths not according to the plain intent of the Law by which they are imposed but with some mental Reservation of their own I do not see almost what could be desired farther to make up the compleat Mystery of Jesuitism I do not say neither do I believe for all this that they are so much as ordinary Papists either in or out of Masquerade but if we should give way to these idle suspicions we have certainly as much cause to be jealous of them as they have of us But we have a manifest argument how frivilous these conceits are for it is well known that in the late Wars and before the cry of Popery was as great and the Conformists were as confidently accused as they are now but when it came to the test and they were violently ejected out of their livelyhoods and many of them forced to fly into Popish Countries there were but very few of them all and those of no very good Character that did imbrace the Romish Religion And what reason is there to suspect that we should be more inclined that way now than they were then But there is no question but the same men that are so ready to believe us Papists can as easily when it shall be for their turn make us Turks or Jews or Heathens in Masquerade SECT XV. Besides this device of Popery there is another almost as good as that which has been much talked of The people have been possessed with strange fears that the Clergy are mighty friends to Arbitrary Government For it has been one main Policy of those whose Projects will never go on smoothly till Conformity be taken away to charge us home with those things that are the most odious and the least understood by those that serve to make up the cry But if any men can be so foolish as to desire to introduce an Arbitrary Authority in the room of one that is directed by Law the Clergy of all others have the least reason to be fond of it For they cannot but know themselves to ly the most open and exposed unto it and that they shall be sure to feel the first and severest lashes of every usurped and tyrannical power Of which we have too fresh an instance to be wholly forgotten in this age The only occasion that I can imagine why they should be traduced for this which is so apparently contrary to their known Interest is because they are not so suspicious as some others would seem to be But those that are bound by their profession and the common rules of Christianity to entertain the most charitable opinion that it is possible for private men may deserve to be pardoned if they cannot be unreasonably jealous of their Prince He that were otherwise a stranger to our Affairs and should casually hear the noise there has been for some time about Arbitrary Government would be apt to think that either the People were sick of their own happiness or that his Majesty were resolved to make himself as absolute as the Grand Seignior or the Great Mogul For if all the gracious Declarations that have been made and more than twenty years experience will not convince men of the extravagancy of such a fear they may be quickly fit for the Hospital of Incurables Since the year Sixty we have had no Committee-men and Sequestrators no compounding for Estates and decimations after that no cantonizing of the Land amongst a company of Major Generals The supreme power has not been invaded by the fag end of a House of Commons nor snatched